Inside Story of Zaid Hamid Banning from Interacting with Pak Forces

ISLAMABAD: The general headquarters on the recommendations of intelligence agencies has imposed indefinite ban on self-proclaimed strategist/analyst, Zaid Hamid.

Known for his anti-India and anti-Israel verbosity, the analyst always claimed to have been closely working with country’s premier intelligence agencies.

“I am an analyst running a think-take. I do research work and many organizations including armed forces utilize my work,” Mr Hamid had claimed in one of the Capital TV’s programs last year.

Raised and educated in Karachi, he got prominence by defending a blasphemy accused. Later, he started a series of TV talk shows and repeatedly accused RAW, Mossad and the CIA to destabilize Pakistan. He once asserted that November 2008 Mumbai attacks were a handiwork of “Hindu Zionists,” to justify surgical strikes inside Pakistan.

A couple of yeara ago, Imaad Khalid, a former colleague of Mr Hamid, made some startling allegations that Mr Hamid was following a Hizbut Tahrir (HuT) like strategy to orchestrate an internal coup in the army. Mr Hamid always refuted those allegations.

The strict directions from the general headquarters read that he could not interact with any military personnel in his individual capacity or as a representative of any think-tank or the organization.

Similarly, all concerned military personnel were directed not to invite him in any official ceremony as a guest speaker. They were asked not to interact with him in any other way.

Interestingly, Mr Hamid’s father was an ex-army official.

Military spokesman refused to comment on the story. An official, requesting not to be named, said the army would never like to be seen as a party against any such individual. “It’s way beyond its dignity,” he added.

Military sources said the intelligence agencies had long warned Mr Hamid not to misuse their name at public forums. They did that because Mr Hamid always took pride in telling people how close was he with the top military brass.

He even made some people believe that the country’s intelligence agencies were seeking guidance from the research work his organization was doing.

Several attempts were made to contact Mr Hamid, but he did not respond. Capital TV